The benefits of body and face oils

Think of facial oil and body oil as a magnificent silky protector. Oils help create a glossy outer-radiance all-over your body unlike anything else. As the gods and goddesses from ancient Greek times – famous for bathing in olive oil – well knew, oils are fabulously rich in fatty acids. Oil is a highly concentrated smooth operator when it comes to looking after your skin. The Body Shop oils ooze with love for every part of your body – from your head down to your toes – hair oil, face oil and body oil. Then there’s the ultra-sensory oils in the form of shower oil and massage oil too. Let’s get this sublime show on the road.

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What is the difference between oil and serum?

Do I really need an oil and a serum? Well, these guys may feel closely related, but they’re not cut out of the same cloth and do different jobs. The big difference is serum is water-based and oil, guessed it? Yep, oil is oil-based. This means serum has smaller molecules that get down deeper into the skin layers and is useful if you want to help plump fine lines. Oil on the other hand is super nourishing but gets down to business on the outer layers of our skin with big fatty molecules. Oils hydrate and coat skin cells with a silky layer of protection, helping reinforce your moisture barrier and preventing dehydration. So, think of serum and oil as a kind of skin pampering double act.

How to apply a face oil

So how do you slot a slinky serum and exotic oil into your skincare routine? Well, skin needs both water and oil to feel hydrated and healthy so there’s a job for both to do. But there’s a knack to getting both products to work their hardest for you. After you’ve cleansed and toned you want to pop the serum on first, a good way to do this is pat on a pea-sized blob with your fingertips and smooth out slightly rather than massage. The lightweight watery formula will sink in and get to work deep and fast, helping hydrate that healthy-goddess looking glow. Do this before using face oil or moisturiser, as these two have larger molecules and tend to lock moisture in as a protective outer layer. Oil is particularly good at nighttime as skin repairs itself and oil helps prevent dehydration as you snooze. Put 2-3 drops on to your palm and pat it on then massage in upwards strokes to your heart's content.

Discover our best facial oils

If you were thinking, face oil – one size fits all – no, no, no. These silky-smoothers come with subtly different characteristics to work in harmony with your skin’s needs. Let’s look at giving your skin some extra love with our best facial oils.

Oils of Life™ Facial Oil

‘A kiss-of-life for my dull tired looking skin,’ did we hear you say? Look no further than our exquisite Oils of Life™ Intensely Revitalising Facial Oil, this velvety oil is made from several precious seed oils and quickly absorbs into your skin. No sticky messing about, it just absorbs quickly and helps give you 24 hours of moisturisation, leaving you with a firmer-looking, brighter visage to present to the world.

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The Body Shop Vitamin E Overnight Serum In Oil

Night face oil

Nighttime can be a blessing and a curse to skin, but with the right night face oil your skin will appreciate your divine intervention. As you snooze for the perfect 8 hours your body can lose a lot of hydration, so you want to help lock moisture in. Our Vitamin E Overnight Serum-in-Oil has the perfect skills to sink quickly into the skin helping replenish it, then coating it with a soft protective layer. Helping skin look radiant, rested and fresher by the morning.

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Facial serum

If only you could bottle that fresh-faced glow, right? We have – well, almost. We’ve managed to bottle our Edelweiss Daily Serum Concentrate, a beautiful lightweight serum enriched with edelweiss extract and natural-origin peptides. It helps skin feel smoother and fresher in an instant, delivering 24hr hydration and helping to protect against indoor and outdoor pollution. You might just find you’ve glowed-up with this little beauty.

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The Body Shop Tea Tree Imperfection Daily Solution

Face oil for blemishes/oily skin

And we’ve even got a gentle, soothing combo for skin that’s having a moment either with blemishes or going through a stage of producing a little more oil than you ideally need. It’s our gorgeous lightweight Tea Tree Anti-imperfection Daily Solution, enriched with Community Fair Trade tea tree oil from Kenya. This clever formula helps skin appear clearer, purified and mattified and feel calmer and softer.

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“It is great for my sensitive skin. It gives a beautiful glow to the skin, and it's not greasy. My skin feels nourished.”

– PrincessPea

About Oils of Life™ Intensely Revitalising Facial Oil

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Our 3 top tips for using body oils

Step 1: Prepare your skin

Oil just loves fresh new skin cells to look after and lavish with love. So it’s always a good idea to use them on freshly exfoliated skin, where you’ve said ta-ra to dull dead skin cells. Use our Body Scrubs to give your whole body an invigorating rub down. Oh la la, you’ll enjoy this surface-smoothing procedure prepping for a dreamy light covering of body oil. It’s gonna get steamy in here.

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Step 2: Apply oil to your body

Glide out of the shower and pat dry any excess water and with a nice fluffy towel, then call on your favourite The Body Shop body oil for the main event. Using body oil is a gorgeous way to massage any tension out of your limbs and wake up your body to a love bug sensation. Drizzle some softly scented oil into your hands and get to work with some stress-busting deep breaths. Bliss.

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Step 3: Massage by use accessories

If you want to topple the heavenly massage sensation over the edge, you want to get your hands on a Total Body Relaxer. This ingenious wooden roller is designed with parallel rolling balls and a hand grip so you can apply pressure all over your body and work on areas of tension. A gorgeous way to pamper and self-care time or if you’re feeling sociable, a partner always comes in handy.

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